The Weed Cougars and Mount Shasta Bears basketball teams turned in an exciting evening of action at Cougar Gymnasium Tuesday, with each team securing two victories in the four-game series.

The highly anticipated varsity boys contest proved to be the highlight of the evening with the Bears stealing a 56-54 victory at the buzzer on a Cesar Gonzalez leaner.

With 13 seconds remaining in the game, the Cougars trailed the Bears 54-52. The Cougars set up an in-bounds play that opened up Edgar Casorla with a 3-point attempt. Casorla's shot rimmed off; Noah Traylor battled his way to the rebound and worked his way to a foul call with six seconds left.

Traylor needed to hit two free-throws to keep the Cougars alive.Traylor focused himself and splashed down his first free-throw with ease.

After a Mount Shasta timeout, Traylor lined up the biggest shot of his high school career, and released. As the ball splashed through the net, the crowd erupted in excitement, but the game was not over.

In an instant the Bears inbounded the ball to Gonzalez, who raced down the court, leaped, and tossed up a leaner that buried itself in the basket and took down the hometown Cougars in an unbelievable finish.

"Coach said in the timeout to push it up and drive to the hoop if he made the free throw," an excited Gonzalez commented. "I just got the ball, went down as fast as I could, threw it up and it went in. It feels really good, I love this moment."

The Bears and Cougars are now tied for second in the SCL with a 4-1 record, chasing the 4-0 Modoc Braves. Weed is now 16-3 overall and Mount Shasta improved to 14-4.

Trevor Shaffer led the way for the Cougars with 13 points followed by Casorla and Traylor, who each scored 12 points.

Varsity Girls

For just the second time since the 2004-2005 season the Weed Lady Cougars took down the Mount Shasta Lady Bears 44-22 to claim sole possession of first place in the SCL.

Both squads came in with 4-0 records in the SCL.

With reigning league MVP Karene Marshall leading the way, the Lady Cougars jumped out to an early lead and kept the Lady Bears at bay to keep their perfect run through the early part of the league schedule intact.

"The girls showed a lot of heart tonight," Weed head coach Bob West said. "We've played a few bad games, but tonight they played together and played very well."

Foul trouble proved costly for the Lady Bears as three of their top players were forced to spend ample time on the bench throughout the game.

Page 2 of 2 - The Lady Cougars jumped out to a 13-3 advantage in the first period, but the Lady Bears battled back to in the second period and sent the game to halftime with a score of 18-13.

In the third period, the Lady Cougars came alive on both sides of the ball pouring 14 points on offense while limiting the Lady Bears to four points.

The Lady Cougar attack didn't slow down in the fourth period as the put the Lady Bears away with a 12-5 run securing the dominant 44-22 victory.

Marshall led all scorers with 22 points, while Destinee Jones poured in 11 points and Elyssa Fisher scored six points for the Lady Cougars.

Janelle Jaegel led the Lady Bears with nine points while Sejay Sarti scored six points.